Revisionary Revival

This workshop is for prose writers working on book-length projects such as novellas, novels, memoirs, or collections of short stories and/or essays. Furthermore, this revival workshop is for writers specifically looking for guidance, if not resuscitation, because they’ve either embarked upon a revision of a more-or-less finished draft or else they’re deep enough into a substantial manuscript word count to find themselves floundering. Participating writers will receive instructions before class on how to prepare, but essentially you will be asked to locate and identify as many “repeat offenders” as you can, and then to bring them to class with your manuscripts and a notebook to serve as your primary tool for revelation and revival. “Repeat offenders” is a playful term used to define those words we all repeat in the drafting and crafting stages whether we do so on purpose or by accident (or because language can be limited). Even though we’ve probably all been advised to riffle through a thesaurus or hit delete (especially as remedy for the annoyingly redundant ones), we will resist this urge to first learn how to lean in and really listen to what they have to say, all the hidden messages they have carried for us to unpack. Through a process of interrogation and investigation these words can become extraordinary tools to unveil the genius always present in our work. This revision technique, as well as the exercises we will be utilizing, fall under the category of divinatory poetics.